Memory device, memory controller, and memory system including the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11726722-B2
Application number	US-202117307317-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2021
Priority date	Aug 12, 2020
Publication date	Aug 15, 2023
Grant date	Aug 15, 2023

Abstract

A memory system includes a first memory device including a plurality of first memory blocks each including a plurality of first memory cells stacked in a direction perpendicular to a substrate; and a memory controller configured to control a memory operation of the first memory device. The memory controller is configured to select and operate any one of different control schemes for each of the first memory blocks based on a number of first not-open (N/O) strings included in each of the first memory blocks, respectively.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A memory system comprising:
a memory device comprising a plurality of memory blocks each including a plurality of memory cells stacked in a direction perpendicular to a substrate of the memory device; and
a memory controller configured to control a memory operation of the memory device,
wherein the memory controller is configured to designate, among the plurality of memory blocks, a target memory block, which is a first type of memory block having only a first type of memory cells, as a second type of memory block having only a second type of memory cells when the target memory block is determined to include a number of not-open (N/O) strings greater than or equal to a threshold value, and to designate the target memory block as the first type of memory block when the target memory block is determined to include a number of N/O strings less than the threshold value,
wherein the memory controller operates the target memory block with a first data writing control scheme corresponding to the first type of memory block when the target memory block is designated as the first type of memory block and operates the target memory block with a second, different data writing control scheme corresponding to the second type of memory block when the target memory block is designated as the second type of memory block.

2. The memory system of claim 1 , wherein the memory controller is further configured to provide, to the memory device, a first type of command for the target memory block when the number of N/O strings in the target memory block equals or exceeds the threshold value, and to provide a second type of command to the memory device for the target memory block when the number of N/O strings in the target memory block is less than the threshold value.

3. The memory system of claim 2 , further comprising control logic configured to detect at least one N/O string from among a plurality of strings included in the target memory block in response to the first type of command and convert a plurality of bits of target data intended to be written to a plurality of target memory cells included in the detected at least one N/O string to have a predetermined value for restricting a number of times for applying a write voltage to the target memory cells.

4. The memory system of claim 2 , wherein the second type of command is for a general write operation, and the memory controller is further configured to provide the second type of command to a second memory device to control a write operation for a second target memory block corresponding to the number of N/O strings less than the threshold value from among the plurality of memory blocks.

5. A memory system comprising:
a memory device comprising a plurality of memory blocks each including a plurality of memory cells stacked in a direction perpendicular to a substrate of the memory device; and
a memory controller configured to control a memory operation of the memory device,
wherein the memory controller is configured to respectively select, for each of the plurality of memory blocks and to operate, for each of the plurality of memory blocks, any one of different control schemes based on a number of not-open (N/O) strings included in each of the plurality of memory blocks, and
wherein the memory controller is configured to provide a first type of erase command to erase data in a first manner, to the memory device to erase a first target memory block from among the plurality of memory blocks based on the number of N/O strings of the first memory block being equal to or greater than a threshold number of N/O strings, and to provide a second type of erase command to erase data of a second target memory block of the plurality of memory blocks in a second manner, when a number of N/O strings of the second target memory block is less than the threshold number of N/O strings.

6. The memory system of claim 5 , wherein the memory device is configured to perform an erase operation on the first target memory block for a first time period by using an erase voltage of a first level in response to the first type of erase command and to perform an erase operation on the second target memory block for a second time period by using an erase voltage of a second level in response to the second type of erase command.

7. The memory system of claim 6 , wherein the first level is higher than the second level, and
the first time period is shorter than the second time period.

8. The memory system of claim 1 , wherein the second type of memory block has higher data reliability than the first type of memory block.

9. The memory system of claim 8 , wherein the second type of memory block is operated as a lower level cell type of memory block than the first type of memory block.

10. The memory system of claim 8 , wherein the first type of memory block is operated, such that cold data, which is accessed less frequently than a reference frequency, is written thereto, and
the second type of memory block is operated, such that hot data, which is accessed more frequently than the reference frequency, is written thereto.

11. The memory system of claim 1 , wherein the memory controller is further configured to request first N/O string information related to the number of N/O strings from the memory device, and
the memory device is further configured to provide the first N/O string information to the memory controller in response to the request.

12. The memory system of claim 1 , wherein the memory controller is configured to select and operate any one of the first or second data writing control schemes for each of a plurality of sub-blocks defined in the plurality of memory blocks based on the number of N/O strings.

13. The memory system of claim 12 , wherein each of the plurality of sub-blocks is classified into a first sub-block not comprising an N/O string and a second sub-block comprising at least one N/O string.

14. The memory system of claim 1 , wherein the memory device is a first memory device and the plurality of memory blocks is a plurality of first memory blocks, and the memory system further comprising a second memory device comprising a plurality of second memory blocks each including a plurality of second memory cells stacked in a direction perpendicular to the substrate, and
wherein the memory controller is further configured to select and operate any one of the first or second data writing control schemes for each of the second memory blocks based on second N/O string information regarding a number of N/O strings included in each of the second memory blocks.

15. A memory controller comprising:
an internal memory configured to store not-open (N/O) string information, wherein the stored N/O string information is information regarding a number of N/O strings included in each of a plurality of memory blocks, which are included in an external memory device; and
a processor configured to, based on the stored N/O string information, operate, among the plurality of memory blocks, a target memory block, which is a first type of memory block having only a first type of memory cells, as a second type of memory block having only a second type of memory cells when the target memory block is determined to include a number of N/O strings greater than or equal to a threshold value, and to operate the target memory block as the first type of memory block when the target memory block is determined to include a number of N/O strings less than the threshold value,
wherein the processor operates the target memory block as the first type of memory block using a first data writing control scheme, and

Assignees

• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Jung Wontaeck
• Kim Bohchang
• Ko Kuihan
• Jeong Jaeyong

Classifications

• G06F3/0679 Primary

  Non-volatile semiconductor memory device, e.g. flash memory, one time programmable memory [OTP] · CPC title

• G06F3/0604

  Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. storage management · CPC title

• G06F3/0652

  Erasing, e.g. deleting, data cleaning, moving of data to a wastebasket · CPC title

• G06F3/0655

  Vertical data movement, i.e. input-output transfer; data movement between one or more hosts and one or more storage devices · CPC title

• G11C16/0483

  comprising cells having several storage transistors connected in series · CPC title